With my project Kvartirka, I reimagined and visualised fragments of my childhood in Eastern Europe. Drawing from memory and my family photo archive, I recreated the interior of a typical Soviet-era Khrushchevka. These five-storey apartment blocks were built in the 1960s as part of a major effort to provide affordable housing through industrialised and prefabricated construction. The buildings were assembled from concrete panels produced in large factories and then transported to the construction sites.
A Kvartira, or individual flat within a Khrushchevka, had a total surface of just 44 square metres. Because of the uniform construction process, every flat looked nearly identical. When you visited your neighbours, you always knew exactly where to find the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. This spatial repetition shaped a quiet, collective familiarity that became part of daily life.
For the installation at Upscale Galerie (2023), I used miniature household items to reconstruct my grandparents’ flat as I remember it. Each detail, from the furniture to the floor plan, reflects the shared domestic environments that defined an entire generation. Kvartirka is both a personal tribute to family and home, and a reflection on how memory, architecture, and ideology are deeply intertwined.
A Kvartira, or individual flat within a Khrushchevka, had a total surface of just 44 square metres. Because of the uniform construction process, every flat looked nearly identical. When you visited your neighbours, you always knew exactly where to find the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. This spatial repetition shaped a quiet, collective familiarity that became part of daily life.
For the installation at Upscale Galerie (2023), I used miniature household items to reconstruct my grandparents’ flat as I remember it. Each detail, from the furniture to the floor plan, reflects the shared domestic environments that defined an entire generation. Kvartirka is both a personal tribute to family and home, and a reflection on how memory, architecture, and ideology are deeply intertwined.